Our Transportation Infrastructure

The above image (from 2007) shows some of the decay in one of America's most iconic bridges. Given the "over building" of this bridge over 100 years ago, I am not afraid to drive across the East River using the Brooklyn Bridge. However, this is the tip of the iceberg when problems with our transportation infrastructure are involved....

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When the snow started to melt recently, many potholes began to grow in the region's roads. From Somers, NY to Carmel, NY on a recent trip, I was afraid to drive at posted speed limits, in part because the roads were in such a state of poor repair. And this, I consider to be a minor problem, compared to other problems across the country. In 2013, CBS News reported "Thousands of bridges around the U.S. may be one freak accident or mistake away from collapse, even if the spans are deemed structurally sound." In addition to the bridges which are poorly maintained, there are others which are vulnerable to accidents, and even more that are beyond their expected life span.  

Bridges alone, are not the whole problem. In the NYC region, for example, we have a network of parkways leading North and East from the city, many of which have dangerous entrances and exits - none of which would ever been built today. Add to this problem that these roads are not all "limited access" and have intersections (some with control lights, others without), and one can see danger lurking.  (Recently, a woman got stuck on the railroad tracks paralleling the Bronx River/Taconic Parkway in Valhalla, possibly as a result of the traffic control at the intersection, and the resulting railroad accident resulted in 5 deaths.) Sadly, there is only so much one can do to retrofit these roads to make them safer. As a result, we continue to live with greater risk from obsolete road design that can not be fixed.

Much of this infrastructure was built without being sure that an adequate income stream would be there to maintain these roads and bridges. The Federal Gas tax has not been increased in years - even though inflation and new technology keep pushing up the price of keeping these roads and bridges in shape. The same goes for many state taxes on gas - no one wants to increase taxes, and even indexing taxes to account for inflation would be a non starter in today's polarized politics. As a result, maintenance tends to get deferred, except where adequate tolls are charged. And then, much of this revenue gets allocated to other purposes.

In New York City, the price of a single ride on a bus or on the subway is going to be raised to $2.75. Although the MTA bridges and tunnels are being maintained with this money, much of it is being siphoned off to subsidize New York's mass transit systems. (Similar money siphoning is also being done at the PA for the PATH system and other pet projects.) And yet, the NYC subway is not in a state of good repair. If one looks at stations such as Chambers Street on the 7th avenue line, one will see (last I was there) one wall that hasn't been cleaned in many years, with tiles falling away from the wall. What else is going on behind the scenes that we don't know about?

I have not ignored the air traffic infrastructure. Three of our nation's most important airports are in locations that wouldn't make sense if one had 20/20 future vision: La Guardia, (Reagan) National, and San Francisco International. There is only so much one can do with these airports, as the flight paths go over some very sensitive real estate, and all have short and tricky landing approaches combined with short runways. Add to this, many airports have poor access via mass transit, and one has a Gordian Knot that makes travel extremely inconvenient....

When much of this infrastructure was built, people assumed that America would never stop growing, and that we would continue to be a nation of unlimited wealth. No one thought of establishing maintenance trust funds for all of this infrastructure - they expected to use current account cash flow - operating expenses, instead of planning for maintenance as capital expenses. (I hope I have my accounting principles correct, for purposes of this discussion.) One can not rescue a system by deferring maintenance - one only kicks a problem further downstream until some poor jerk can't avoid the blame for paying the full bill with interest.

Some cities have gotten creative - Youngstown, OH and Detroit, MI have taken the extreme step of eliminating the infrastructure in areas of town meant to be "decommissioned". This means, that entire city blocks will be razed, and vacant land left - so that the costs related to sparsely lived in areas can be eliminated. Roads will be left to decay, as they will not be maintained. Over time, new developments can pay the cost of rebuilding the infrastructure - but with those developments come the very people who will be paying the taxes to maintain it.

Cities, states, and nations need to maintain an adequate transportation infrastructure. They can no longer scrimp on mass transit, as people are moving back to the core cities without their cars. The Interstate highways need to be maintained, lest people nation wide are prepared to suffer delays in receiving goods attributed to road and bridge failure. The private railroads need to make money from investing in their own infrastructure, as we can not afford for many of the goods we depend on to be delayed. In short, because we are no longer a network of local economies, but one large, pulsing national economy, we need a reliable transportation infrastructure for all of America.